"This is the ultimate public outreach," said Paul Morin, director of the National Science Foundation-funded Polar Geospatial Center in the University of Minnesota's College of Science and Engineering, in a statement. "These are places that nobody can visit without tremendous effort and cost. This puts the glory of Antarctica at people's fingertips around the world so everyone can be an 'armchair' polar explorer."

(Fun fact: Network World parent company IDG launched a publication called Computerworld Antarctica several years back!)

Assembling the photos for the Google/University of Minnesota collaboration wasn't easy, as many of the sites are exceptionally difficult to access, even by Antarctica standards. They required University of Minnesota researchers to use a special lightweight tripod camera that could withstand harsh weather conditions, and they had to travel by various means, such as snowmobile and U.S. Air Force LC-130 Hercules aircraft.

The researchers helped Google pinpoint locations that are now more accurately reflected on Google Maps.